Make Shortspears Medium Weapons

[RedLancer]

Per the subject, I understand that shortspears were classified as "tiny" in hopes that the tiny weapon animations would make them animate more like a spear. However, PCs just swipe them around like a sword anyway.

Can shortspears be made medium so that they're not such a Disarm liability and can get some better interaction with Power Attack?

[MrSmith]

Per the subject, I understand that shortspears were classified as "tiny" in hopes that the tiny weapon animations would make them animate more like a spear. However, PCs just swipe them around like a sword anyway.

I appreciated the inclusion of the Short Spear because its allows pairing with a shield. That said, I do agree the swiping animation is a little off-putting.

Can shortspears be made medium so that they're not such a Disarm liability and can get some better interaction with Power Attack?

This would disadvantage Halflings or Gnomes from using Short Spear + Heavy Shield. I do have a Halfling character who specializes in Short Spear and Heavy Shield. Minor impact as I believe he is under the 100% RCR limit of 10 levels.

Cheers!
MrSmith

[DaloLorn]

Shortspears do not receive any disarming penalties related to their size, and there is precedent for a Medium weapon which cannot be two-handed (namely rapiers) and receives reduced benefits from Power Attack.

This request may not end up being the buff you want it to be.

[RedLancer]

Shortspears do not receive any disarming penalties related to their size, and there is precedent for a Medium weapon which cannot be two-handed (namely rapiers) and receives reduced benefits from Power Attack.

This request may not end up being the buff you want it to be.

This is to say that shortspears are excluded from the normal reckoning of weapon size in Disarm calculations?
Edit: I checked the math in-game because I apparently paid no attention to it prior to your illumination. Is it a limitation of the game engine that custom weapons don't take their assigned size modifier in Disarm checks? Is it a value in the tlk?

Rapiers are finessable, so such a precedent would be applicable if shortspears were finessable. My understanding is they are not. Are there other medium weapons that can't be used two-handed that are also not finessable?

[DaloLorn]

Per the scripts, the only non-AB modifiers that factor into your Disarm check are:

• Is a light weapon (or unarmed without feat 21, which I think is Improved Unarmed Strike): -4
• Is being used two-handed: +4
• Is one of several weapons good for disarming (I forgot the list): +2
• Has Improved Disarm feat (or feat 2940, which I think was Monk Improved Disarm): +4

Most of these modifiers work both ways. Obviously, since you can't be disarmed when you have no weapons to disarm, the unarmed penalty never applies to the defender... and for some reason, Monk Improved Disarm doesn't make you more resistant to being disarmed.

This is not a hardcoded limitation, but a conscious design choice by Rhifox. It could be changed, but I don't think that's likely at this time.